Take your first look at the new trains aiming to change London travel

Crossrail's new trains shown off

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Crossrail

The massive Crossrail project, which is designed to make travelling across London faster and easier, is just a few years from completion – and Transport for London has now revealed the trains that will be carrying commuters and tourists around the UK capital.

The new train looks a little like the offspring of a tube train and a standard train, and should be running on the central section of the new route in 2018, with major work on the line completed a year earlier than that.

Inside there are few surprises, with a mixture of sideways seats that you'd find on the tube and the groups of four that are still prevalent on most commuter trains.

The trains are 200 metres long (one and a half times longer than the current longest tube train) and can carry 1,500 people in nine carriages. They will be built in Derby, and are constructed with "strong but lightweight material" including an aluminium shell. They will also put electricity back into the power supply when braking.

The trains will feature on-board customer information systems delivering real-time travel information, free Wi-Fi on trains and platforms, and travellers will have access to 4G.